Politics and Culture

November 21, 2012

I am Hazara

Close to 1,000 Hazaras have been killed in targeted attacks and shootings in the capital of Pakistan’s largest province. The indifference towards the atrocities has forced this shrinking community to take escape routes and gamble between life at the promised land and death at the ocean.

Over half a million Hazaras live in Pakistan, mostly in Quetta. They're Persian-speakers, mainly Shi'a Muslims, with significant communities also in Afghanistan and Iran. But they're under threat from increasingly extreme Sunni elements:

Mothers avoid sending children to school and professors now sit at home to plan their life in Australia or Punjab. Businesses have been heavily dented and Hazaras are not seen in Quetta – a city which was once their identity. After every blast or incident of targeted violence, those outside the community hastily draw a line. When a Balochistan University bus was attacked, the non-Hazara parents decided to pull out their children from the transportation used by Hazara students. Moving with the Hazaras has become synonymous with inviting death.